Fred Johansen reviewed Blood and Bone by Ian C. Esslemont
An excellent post-colonial fable.
5 stars
Now this is the "real" Jungle Book. Except it's not real. It's darker-than-dark Fantasy.
While being set in a jungle, it's as far from Kipling as you can come. In this jungle everything, and I mean everything, is trying to kill you—and some of it may be magic beyond your comprehension. In comes people that believe themselves to be civilized, but the jungle teaches them they're not.
The book might be seen as Esslemont's post-colonial answer to Heart of Darkness. It also sits well in the larger Malazan series, being the fifth in his Novels of the Malazan Empire series which is a companion series to Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Now this is the "real" Jungle Book. Except it's not real. It's darker-than-dark Fantasy.
While being set in a jungle, it's as far from Kipling as you can come. In this jungle everything, and I mean everything, is trying to kill you—and some of it may be magic beyond your comprehension. In comes people that believe themselves to be civilized, but the jungle teaches them they're not.
The book might be seen as Esslemont's post-colonial answer to Heart of Darkness. It also sits well in the larger Malazan series, being the fifth in his Novels of the Malazan Empire series which is a companion series to Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.